Wine and beer now allowed on radio, TV
More ads, different spots - and a drop of wine on Swiss TV, radio
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ofcom, the Swiss federal communications supervisor, will issue directives during the summer of 2010 for more advertising space and time on radio and television. The new regulations will bring Switzerland into line with European neighbours, who have more advertising time, in order not to create a disadvantage, in particular for Swiss public TV and radio.
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three cities have officially put in their applications to bid for the 2018 Summer Olympic Games, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced. The cities are: Munich, Germany, Annecy, France near Geneva and PyeongChang, South Korea. The cities have until January 2011 to file their applications.
The winner of the 2018 Games will be announced in Durban, South Africa 6 July 2011.
Inter-Europe air traffic remains weak
Worldwide improvement is concentrated in Asia, Latin America
Brands, not flags, must guide the industry to profitability, says Iata head
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The airline industry is expected to have an overall loss of $9.4 billion for 2009, according to Iata, the Geneva-based air transport industry organization, which released new figures Thursday 11 March. The loss is lower than Iata’s December projected figure of $11b. “More significantly, we now forecast smaller losses in 2010 of $2.8b, compared to our previous forecast of $5.6b.”
The improvement is due to year-end growth in traffic that carried on into January, but it was much led by Asia and Latin America, with the US and Europe far more sluggish.
Growth in passenger demand, world airlines 2006-2009 (Iata)
Click on image to view larger
”We can be optimistic but with due caution,” Giovanni Bisignani, CEO and director-general says. “Important risks remain. Oil is a wild-card, over-capacity is still a danger, and costs must be kept under control – throughout the value chain and with labour.”
Asian and Latin American carriers posted international passenger demand gains of 6.5 percent and 11.0 percent respectively in January. North America and Europe lagged, with international passenger demand gains of 2.1 and 3.1 percent.
Brazil's tax on ketchup to jump to 38%
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is taking up its option, approved by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, to slap a 30 percent import tax on fruit from the US after what it calls eight years of negotiations and four years of trying to get the US to end its cotton subsidies. The US remains the world’s largest cotton producer, while Brazil is fifth. Brazil handed its list of taxes to the WTO Monday 8 March. Cars will also be taxed and ketchup will be taxed at 38 percent instead of 18 percent.
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo news, Fruitnet, World Trade Organization
Some members of the great white shark's family are on the Cites list under review for protection
Bern / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has agreed to back demands for a ban on bluefin tuna, a favourite of sushi diners, when Geneva-based Cites meets in Doha, Qatar, 13-25 March. Cites is the inter-government Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and 175 governments will be sending representatives to the triennial meeting.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Journalists will be spared but 100 of their colleagues in support services at SSR, Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation, will lose their jobs between now and 2014. Support services, with 735 employees, include: computer services, real estate, logistics, human resources, training, communications, marketing, and accounting.
SSR owns TSR television, RSR radio and WRS English radio, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
Update 07:00 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A strike by Lufthansa pilots was called off at midnight Monday 22 February, the pilots’ union and Lufthansa announced. Talks will resume with no preconditions and the striking unions have committed themselves to avoiding industrial action before 8 March, in an agreement with the German labour court in Frankfurt.
The strike of 4,000 pilots was expected to cause major disruption, but appears to have had a relatively minot impact: Zurich and Geneva airports reported they were fairly calm, despite 27 canceled flights Monday out of a total of 87.
The airline Swiss announced late Monday evening thatwhile its flights are not affected directly by the strike, codeshare flights are and the company will continue to keep a close eye on the situation. The Swiss-based airline, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa group,
A general strike in Greece 24 February will affect some Swiss flights, the company notes.
Links to other sites: NZZ (Ger), ats/Romandie
Swiss Finance Minister Merz confirms no automatic data exchanges
Canada initials agreement, France confirms Davos “understanding”
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s push to build up its stable of bilateral tax agreements in line with OECD standards moved ahead last week. Among other moves, a new agreement with Canada was signed, the same day that a Mafia boss in Montreal pleaded guilty to hiding $5 million in three Swiss bank accounts from the Canadian taxman.
Monday 15 February Figaro newspaper in France published a list of 18 countries that France is calling its black list of governments that are not cooperative in fiscal matters, with the bulk of them in Latin America. Switzerland does not figure on the list.
All quiet on the Swiss front over Germany’s threat to buy stolen bank data
Update 10:40 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has issued a statement following a speech Monday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel where she said that Germany is ready to buy stolen Swiss bank data. Bern says in a brief note that Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, telephoned Swiss Federal Councilor and Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz Monday. Merz told his German counterpart that Switzerland will not provide judicial assistance for requests which are based on stolen data. He added that Switzerland is, however, prepared to work more closely with Germany to unmask fiscal fraud, within the context of a revised double taxation treaty.
Switzerland has in recent months negotiated more than a dozen such treaties with other countries. It is currently in negotiations with Germany for a new treaty.
Merkel’s speech was made after Merz was contacted by Schaeuble by telephone to say that the German government has been approached with an offer to sell information on 1,500 bank clients for abut CHF3.5 million.
Credit is easing and property prices are starting to move up in the UK, two of the factors that have led PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute report to name London as investors’ most popular choice for new real estate developmen in Europe. The city moved up several slots on the international scale, a sign of renewed investor faith in both the market overall and the UK’s improved situation.
Links to other sites: PWC and Urban Land report, Reuters
Apple posted a record quarter for sales, for the period ending 31 December 2009, thanks in part to a 100 percent increase in iPhone sales and a 34 percent increase in the sale of Macs, compared to a year earlier. The company’s sales were up 32 percent to $15.8 billion, and profits rose 50 percent to $3.4b, both figures well above analysts’ expectations. New accounting standards also helped boost figures.
The news comes on the eve of Apple’s expected announcement 27 January of its new tablet computer.
Links to other sites: Apple press release, CNN, the Globe & Mail, Canada
S1 Ortovox avalanche finder - contact them right away
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Migros, one of the stores where customers have been buying an avalanche finder made by Ortovox, is alerting consumers that the gear, if purchased in August 2009 or later, may need a software update to function correctly.
Ortovox provides images and details, in English, on its web site. Models affected have an orange on-off button and use software version 1.2.3073 or 1.2.3074.
The company urges owners of the S1 to contact them immediately for the update, for safety reasons. It will undertake the cost of updates.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Peter Hasler has been named to head Swiss Post, the national postal service, effective immediately. He replaces Claude Béglé, who stepped down from the job abruptly Monday evening 19 January. Several members of the board had resigned under Béglé’s leadership, citing differences over strategy. Hasler headed the Union Suisse Patronale, the powerful employers’ association, from 1993-2006.
Click on image to view larger (© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss media companies’ revenues from advertising nosedived by 20.4 percent in 2009, falling to CHF1,585.7 million. Worst hit was the financial and economic press, down 30.1 percent and Sunday newspapers, with a 29.4 percent fall in ad sales. Dailies were close behind, with revenue down 21.6 percent. In December 2009 alone the daily papers saw their advertising income fall by 4.4 percent.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Inside Switzerland”, which was started in 2007 as a glossy Swiss-wide magazine providing news and features in English, has ceased publication of both the quarterly print magazine and its online newsletter. The magazine was published by Schweizer and Davies Media in Zurich, which was founded by Jennifer Davies and Sabine Schweizer.
Davies is an arts presenter on World Radio Switzerland.
Editor-in-chief Schweizer notes in her letter to readers that the publication “has not been able to withstand current financial pressures.”
The quarterly print publication sold for CHF35 for four issues before it folded.
Update 21:20 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The proverbial sweet tooth could soon be replaced by sweet wheels in Switzerland, the kind that roll along sugar-covered highways. Authorities in canton Bern have confirmed that they have been using a liquid sugar-based product instead of salt on the A6 autoroute between Rubigen and Spiez, in a two-year test programme that is going well, canton Bern roads supervisor Martin Roesti told GenevaLunch.
The product being used is made by a British company, Safecote, and is manufactured in Italy. Parts of the US, Canada, Norway and Iceland use the liquid sugar on their roads. Switzerland is testing it, says Roesti, because at lower temperatures it is more effective than salt chloride. It is also less aggressive and doesn’t lead to potholes the way salt does.
Geneva, Switzerland and London, England (GenevaLunch) - The main lesson from 2009’s global financial and economic crises is that we need to recognize a fundamental need to change thinking on global risks and how they are managed, says the World Economic Forum. The Geneva-based group, which hosts its annual Davos meeting of world leaders 27-31 January in the Graubuenden resort, published its Global Risks Report 2010 Thursday 14 January. The reports’ authors call for “an overhaul of current values and behaviours by decision-makers to improve coordination and supervision”, saying that the governance gap remains too great.
The report is published annually, just ahead of the Davos meeting.
This year it points to “the impact of the fiscal crisis and the social and political implications of high unemployment rates in several major economies as key concerns.”
French Alps, view leaving Geneva airport
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UK-based travel company Thomson, has issued the following statement for passengers who lost their luggage when a small group of baggage handlers went on strike in Geneva 2 January. Thousands of bags were misplaced 2-3 January and many are still being returned, to Thomson customers but also those of some airlines.
”Customers returning from Geneva Airport (GVA) Saturday 2 January 2010
We regret that due to an unofficial handling strike by ramp agents at Geneva Airport (GVA) on Saturday 2 January 2010, ski baggage was not returned to the UK.
Update 12:30, 11 January 2010
We can confirm that all bags from the 2nd of January 2010 have been returned back to the UK from Geneva for onward processing by our Baggage Handling Teams. The remaining bags are currently being matched and tagged for onward delivery.
Geneva's Cornavin train station
Artist's rendering of new Cornavin station (image: CFF)
Update with artist’s drawings, video link
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva’s Cornavin station begins a major renovation programme next Tuesday, 18 January. Work will begin on the west entry hall and the ground floor of the station. Access from the west end of the station to tracks 1 and 2 will be changed and new access to the building will be provided from the Montbrillant passage.
Ed. note: the Montbrillant passage will provide the only access to the building from the west side during the construction period, from January to August 2010, with the main area closed for renovation. A number of shops and other businesses in the station wil close for part of the renovation.
Artist's rendering of new Cornavin station (image: CFF)
Pedestrian traffic flow in future, Cornavin station
The first phase of the three-year project, the west wing, will be ready by May 2011 and the east wing in autumn 2013. The project is designed to improve traffic flows, but also t0 make the station brighter, livelier and more comfortable, says the CFF.
The area around the station will be particularly disrupted during the summer of 2010, with work going on inside the station and the nearby Place-des-Vingt-Deux-Cantons, next to the Notre Dame church, torn up to make way for the new Bernex tram line terminus.
St Louis, Missouri, USA (GenevaLunch) - A gunman killed three people and injured at least five others, three of them critically, at the offices of Swiss-Swedish multinational ABB in St Louis Thursday 7 January, according to police reports. The man entered the factory at 06:30. ABB was unable to give details or confirm more than the police information to wire services, at 19:35 Swiss time, saying the situation was still unclear. Initial media reports in the US indicate that the gunman was among those killed, and that he was a former employee who was in litigation with the company, but none of this has been confirmed officially.
Links to other sites: ABB, CNN, ats/Romandie (Fre)
Geneva Writers' Conference
Lift 2009
Update 7 January 06:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s winter and spring schedule of conferences which are open to the public is getting underway, and it includes two favourites with the international population: the February Geneva Writers Workshop and Lift10, which moves from its previous February dates to May this year.
The Geneva Writers’ Conference, 5-7 February 2010 at Webster University, had only 10 places left, out of 180, by 6 January.
Tax revenues were down by €7.7 billion, or 19 percent, in Ireland for 2009, Department of Finance figures published Tuesday 5 January show. The drop in revenue combined with a €4b government bailout of Anglo Irish Bank pushed the national debit €11.9 billion higher.
Ireland’s high debt and the problems of Iceland, still trying to recover from the collapse of its economy a year ago, are likely to add to Eurozone woes in 2010, argues Ralph Atkins in the Financial Times.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Irish Times
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World Radio Switzerland (WRS), the English-language public radio station, has offered listeners in Lausanne an explanation for poorer reception by some listeners on its new frequency, compared to the old: 101.7FM has some interference from neighbouring stations 101.5FM and 101.9FM. The move was mandated by the federal communications office in order to give the old location, 88.4FM, to Lausanne FM radio as part of its new license to broadcast in the Geneva area. The allocation of that slot required other stations to move. WRS notes that the best way to pick up the station is with DAB + (digital) radio.
The station was formerly WRG, a private station, but in 2007 it became part of RSR, French-speaking Switzerland’s public radio. RSR director Gerard Tschopp told GenevaLunch at the time that one goal was to build listeners throughout Switzerland with DAB. Digital radio, unlike FM is not geographically limited.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland and China will initial an agreement in Geneva 30 November to undertake a feasibility study for a free trade agreement. The two countries agreed early in 2009 to work together to this end and they will now formalize the work. Bilateral trade between the two was CHF11.1 billion in 2008, a 30-fold increase since 1980.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has finished reviewing the first 500 files of UBS clients suspected of tax fraud by the IRS, the US tax authority. The FTA announced 25 November that it has not communicated names to the IRS and will not, as stipulated in the Swiss-US agreement, until clients have exhausted the appeals process.
